Well, the holidays are incontestably over for this year. Some of you are no doubt breathing a sigh of relief: an empty (emptier) social calendar, fewer guests and less traveling, no more Christmas music at-all-times-everywhere….

But some of you, equally doubtlessly, have a case of the post-holiday blues — to which I’d like to suggest a cure of a different color: orange.

While the holiday season is over, clementine season is in full swing. These tiny little oranges, originally a Spanish cross between the mandarin and Seville breeds, are one of my favorite bright lights when I have a case of winter doldrums. Not only are they extremely high in vitamin C (just one can contain up to half a day’s RDA, according to Cooking Light), but they lend themselves to a variety of tasty, gluten-free recipes — if you can just resist eating them straight from the crate.
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Tomorrow is New Year’s Eve, a holiday that always stresses me out. It seems like lots of people try to have big, blow-out, memorable evenings — and the effort that goes into planning far outweighs the fun they wind up having.

Accordingly, I thought we’d go for the opposite type of recipe today: recipes whose deliciousness far outweighs the planning required for them. Pumpkin Spice Waffle Cookies from The Daily Dietribe and Chocolate Espresso Angel Food Cake from Real Sustenance. Added bonus, they both look quite fancy: perfect for impressing someone as we start 2012.

Aside from their prettiness, these two recipes have very little in common. Well, except that they’re gluten-free. And isn’t that all that really matters?

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It’s the day of Christmas Eve Eve. Hooray!

If you don’t have your recipes set, may I suggest you have a look at these?

This week’s recipes from Iris and Brittany may seem incongruous to the season, but I thought amidst all the gingerbread and eggnog you might be looking for a splash of something bright and summery: cherries.

‘Tis the season for frozen or dried cherries rather than fresh — but with these recipes for Cherry Chocolate Chip Cookies and Cherry Pie, you’ll be transported back to warmer weather. Plus, added bonus! an extra pie crust recipe, for filling with whatever your hungry heart desires.

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We threw a little party this weekend, just a casual excuse to get together with all those people you love but somehow never get a chance to see enough of. And an excuse to make latkes.

Sorry, didn't get a picture of the latkes. Did get a snap of the laser dreidel.

Ah, the humble latke. Harbinger of the Hanukkah holiday, holder of my heart, heavy with … apple sauce and sour cream. Some things just can’t be alliterated.

You certainly don’t have to celebrate Hanukkah to enjoy the traditional foods: those of the fried variety. The central message of the Festival of Lights, too, is apt regardless of your beliefs: it’s a time to celebrate the way that sometimes, despite all indications that you have less-than-enough, it turns out that you’re able to make it last until better times.

Tomorrow night is the first night of Hanukkah this year; if you aren’t sure what to make for dinner, may I suggest the latke?
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It’s Recipe Friday again!

I really need to come up with a better name. Hopefully those scrumptious photos make up for it.

Today’s duo of gluten-free recipes comes courtesy of the letter C, for cinnamon. Cinnamon Rolls and Cinnamon Chocolate Cookies. Oh yes.

According to the ever-knowledgable Wikipedia, cinnamon is native to Southeast Asia and was unknown to Europeans until the 16th century. Poor Chaucer, poor Dante, they never knew what they were missing.

Not only is cinnamon tasty, tradition hold it has numerous health benefits. It may lower blood sugar in people with diabetes, reduce inflammation, and/or serve as an antioxidant and bacteria-fighter.

All of which is to say, you should make these gluten-free recipes involving cinnamon. Now.
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I am very excited to be launching a little something that — for lack of a better phrase — we are referring to as Recipe Friday.

(Sorry folks, but December is a hectic month! Maybe in January I’ll find a good pun to use instead.)

This would be exciting in any case, but it’s double-exciting because the recipes are coming from two charming and talented gluten-free ladies: Iris at The Daily Dietribe and Brittany at Real Sustenance.

Wait, let’s go one more: it’s triple exciting, because today we’re sharing snickerdoodle recipes. No one can say for sure where the term snickerdoodle originated, but it’s come to mean a cookie with a cinnamon-sugar topping. There are endless varieties, but we think these three are sure-fire winners:
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We have a few things in the schedule for the next couple of days, and I suddenly realized that we hadn’t a single Thanksgiving post.

Sacrébleu!

Hopefully by now you have your menu straight and you’ve either talked with your host or your guests about what having a gluten-free Thanksgiving entails (whether for one person or the whole table). If not, though, the Internet is absolutely awash in Thanksgiving ideas for you to feast upon. The following is a bit of a meta-roundup, if you will. The favorite tasty morsels from my favorite Internet celebrities,  for your reading/cooking/eating pleasure.
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This is my first Halloween in Pittsburgh since college. I’m excited. I’m dressing up as Carmen Sandiego, if I can just find the right red hat.

I’m also going to a friend’s for dinner and the handing-out of candy to neighborhood children. Pretty psyched for that, especially because it’s on me to bring dessert.

At the table: a vegan, a picky eater, gluten-free me (and a few omnivores). Instantly, baked apples came to mind. I love baked apples not just because they’re gluten-free, but because you can make them as decadent or as healthy as you want, you can make one or ten, they’re already portioned out, and they taste like fall.
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Zombie Pumpkins, or kids on a sugar high?

Halloween! It’s almost here. Are you dressing up? Are your kids?

On the surface, Halloween can be a tough time to be gluten-free — but as our numbers grow, so do the resources available for creating a safe, happy Halloween.

First and foremost: gluten-free candy. Thanks to Heidi for posting a list of lists on Adventures of a Gluten Free Mom. Some of those lists include spooky lunchbox ideas and other fun goodies, so be sure to give a read.

Even if you have a list from last year, take a minute to go through these; ingredients can change — for better or for worse — and taking 5 minutes now will get your trick-or-treaters 5 minutes closer to chowing down in a few weeks.
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When I saw the title of the article in the San Francisco Chronicle, I really thought it was a joke. Someone making fun of the trend towards eating “new” strange things.

Acorns? Puh-leeze.

Except, it wasn’t a joke. Anywhere where oak trees grow, people really do eat acorns; they gather them, process them, dry them, cook with them. It seems like a lot of work, but acorns are gluten-free so I’d be remiss if I didn’t share the info.
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